Prosapia

Aaron was running faster than he had ever ran before through the dusty alleyways of Algiers, The dry heat of the spring sun was almost too much to
bear but his pace never altered. He felt the breeze of a bullet miss his head by inches as he took the sharp turn into the next alley, launched
himself onto the low baring roof of the adjacent building and continued to flee. He turned around and saw that his pursuers had not dropped their pace
so instinctively he broke right and leapt across the gap and landed with a crunch on a small balcony where an old couple were enjoying a game of
chess. The old women released a terrified yelp as Aaron landed and her husband moved with a speed that to Aaron seemed almost unnatural in a man his
age, Aaron ducked through the doorway into the couples apartment as his pursuers fired a hail of bullets at his position cutting the old man down as
he moved to cover his wife.

He awoke from the nightmare with a start and found that his sheets were soaked with sweat it had been a long time since he had a nightmare, it brought
back painful memories that he would rather forget. His quarters were cold and devoid of any sentiment it was not permitted for agents to have personal
items on base but Aaron had stashed a backpack with passports, cash and several burn phones in one of the ceiling panels after his first mission, It
was his backup plan in the unlikely event that he had to get out, all he had to do was retrieve the pack and disappear. He thought often of taking off
and finding a nice beach on a tropical island where he wouldn't have to worry about the admiral or missions or any of the other crap he hated about
this hellhole. Sometimes he wondered why his mother sent him here, was he so repellent that his own mother couldn't stand to be around him? Of course
he knew that wasn't the case, she sent him here to protect him after his father betrayed his country and his family by working for Syrian
intelligence. Ten years had passed and he still remembered the day his mother told him the truth, he was nine years old..

“Aaron” his mother had called to him across the courtyard
“Aaron get in the car now!” she had yelled, he had never heard fear in his mothers voice but there was no mistaking that's what he had heard. He
did not need to be told twice, when his mother told him to do something he did it without question. She threw two large duffel bags in the backseat
just as Aaron had buckled himself in the front and then she jumped into the drivers seat and drove off at high speed.
“Mama what is going on?” he had asked her as he started to feel the unfamiliar tendrils of fear creep into his mind
“Don't worry everything is going to be fine” she had tried to comfort him but he knew from her tone she was afraid. Five hours later they arrived
at a small cottage on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
“we will be safe here for a while” his mother had said as she was taking the bags from the car.
“Safe from who mother? What is going on?” he pleaded with her
“Aaron sit down and I shall explain everything” he took a seat on the bench in the front garden looking out onto the vineyards
“Oh my son I am so sorry to have got you caught up in this mess” she had proclaimed with tears streaming down her face, his mother was the
toughest person he knew seeing her like this filled him with fear.
“if you are to understand then I have to start at the beginning” his mother had said after she regained her composure.
“I am not a translator for the police and your father is not the captain of a fishing boat”
“Mama I don't understand what you are talking about!”
“well hush and let me finish then” she replied
“your father and I both work for Mossad, do you know what that is?” she had asked with a hint of fear in her voice
“i think so, it's the secret police they fight Hamas”
“exactly, when I was eighteen I started to work for them, soon after I met your father and then we got married and had you. They are coming for me
and I have to get you somewhere safe so there is a man coming here to take you away” she said
“ but mama why are they after you? You're not Hamas.”
“They want me because your father has done something terrible and they will use me to get to him, they will use you too if they find you so I have
to send you away until I can figure a way out of this mess” she spoke quickly with tears flowing freely down her face, Aaron had never seen his
mother cry and seeing it now he felt his own tears begin to flow. “i can come and help you, I don't want to leave you alone.” his words were
broken and his tears were streaming down his cheeks.
“Listen to me child, you must leave I need to know you are safe and when I have found a way to fix the mess your father has made I will come for you
but for now you must go do you understand?”
“yes mama” he replied as a black jeep pulled into the driveway.

Aaron was brought back to the present by the sound of his name over the intercom
“ Aaron please report to the admirals office” He quickly washed his face, threw on a black t-shirt and stonewashed jeans and made his way to the
admirals office. The admirals office was a large room situated directly above operations and only accessible from the elevator, Aaron made his way
through Ops and headed towards the elevator. “ Hey Aaron the old man is not in the best of moods” Blake called across the room with a sly grin.
“He never is Blake but thanks for the heads up” he called back
Aaron entered the elevator and pressed the button for the Admirals office. The doors opened and he stepped out into a large office with an oak desk in
the northeast corner where the Admiral was sitting, he was at least 60 years old but nobody knew his exact age not surprising considering nobody even
knew his real name. To everybody in the Facility he was known simply as the admiral, the commanding officer of Prosapia his word is law. There was a
saying amongst some of the recruits “ if the admiral decrees it, we must achieve it” but none of the recruits had ever met the man for anything
other than orientation.”Aaron what the hell kept you we have a situation?”
“ my apologies sir it won't happen again” he replied with only a hint of sarcasm
“see that it doesn't” the admiral replied. “We have a situation with one of the recruits, she went against orders and failed to eliminate her
target. I want her taken care of, I will not tolerate disobedience Aaron! I want you to handle this personally”
“ of course sir what is the recruits name and location?” he asked, eager for an end to this meeting
“It's Jess she is on mission in Bucharest” The admiral said with an impatient tone
“i will see that it's taken care of sir”
“ see that you do, dismissed” as Aaron took the elevator back to Ops he realized that if there was ever a reason to get out this was it. The doors
opened and Aaron stepped out “ Blake get me the contact details for Jess and send them to my phone and call down to the armory, let them know I will
be leaving within the hour and I require a tactical care package”
“already on it and I requisitioned the Mercedes for you” Blake replied
“nice in that case inform the armory that I will be leaving in twenty minutes I want my equipment in the vehicle ready to go” he made his way back
to his quarters retrieved the pack from the hiding spot in the ceiling and made towards the sub level elevator.

Aaron stepped off the sub level elevator and entered the server room, he removed a flash drive from a hidden compartment in his pack and inserted
it into the main server tower and started the download when the download was complete he removed a second flash drive from the pack and inserted it
into the same tower. A small message box appeared “ Virus upload 1% complete” he turned and stepped back onto the elevator and took it to the
garage, he stepped off to find one of the armory agents putting the requested equipment in the car. “ you're all set to go boss” the agent said
as Aaron hid the pack under the passenger seat, he walked around the front and entered the drivers seat turned on the engine and accelerated up the
ramp and out onto the forest roads. He took his phone and forwarded Jess's details to his burn phone before removing the battery and tossing the
traceable one all agents are given out the window. Three hours to get to Bucharest he thought to himself, he had to get there before the Tech's
discovered the virus he planted, “ let's see what top of the line German engineering can do” he said out loud as he pushed the pedal to the
floor. He ditched the car on Piata roma underneath a busy motorway and walked towards the safe house that Jess was occupying, he took out his phone
and called her “ Jess it's Aaron you are compromised meet at the secondary extraction point” he hung up before she could Reply.”

Jess moved to the bathroom and retrieved the Glock she had hidden behind the medicine cabinet before she exited the room through the fire escape and
made off at a casual pace, it was strange, she had believed that she would struggle in the field but as soon as she heard Aarons voice instinct seemed
to kick in and her training took over. She made her away along the busy street checking the reflections in windows for anyone that may be following
her and then she spotted him, a large man in his thirty’s with stubble and a shaved head without thinking she stopped at a stall that sold
umbrellas and purchased one while carefully checking the distance of her pursuer she did not want him to know she spotted him, smiling appreciation at
the stall vendor she crossed the street and bore left towards a multistory car park. The bearded man was still following and so she continued along
the street until she noticed a women walking towards her as she got close the women made an attempt to grab her so Jess Swung with the umbrella and
caught the unknown female on the jaw knocking her to the ground she turned and saw the bearded man running towards them, she ran into a small cafe and
jammed the door closed with the umbrella before making her way upstairs to the small apartment above. Jess knew an umbrella would not hold them off
long and with that in mind she jumped from a second story window onto the roof of a moving truck, she landed hard and rolled off the side onto the
ground with a sickening crunch struggling to her feet she made her way to the car park suddenly a red sports car pulled along side and a voice said
“ Get in!”
“Aaron thank god I thought you were with them” Jess said as she slid into the passenger seat her voice gave away how fearful she was. “ You
really screwed up girl” Aaron said sounding angrier than he intended.
“I couldn't do it, there was a child with her”she pleaded
“don't worry about it, we are done with them it's just you and me now”
“what do you mean” she asked with a look of utter confusion
“ The admiral sent me to kill you but I decided against it” he offered with a cocky smile on his face
“well he sent others they just tried to grab me in the middle of a busy street, how the hell are we going to get away? They won't stop hunting
us” she replied her anger finding its way to the surface
“Relax! I have a plan, one that will keep them busy long enough for us to find some allies”
“Care to share?” she asked impatiently
“ I uploaded a virus onto the servers hopefully that will give us enough time”
“Time for what ?Aaron you know I don't like cryptic mind games” Jess asked, her temper boiling over
“I will explain later, First we have to get to Odessa”
“Odessa? You're not thinking of doing what I think are you?” she asked now visibly concerned
“I'm afraid so” Aaron said smiling uncontrollably
“we will be dead before the end of the week if we try this plan” she said pleadingly
“That's the fun part, who wants to live forever?” He stated bluntly before turning on the radio

Aaron parked the car in an abandoned warehouse at the docks and woke Jess. “Hey sleeping beauty we have work to do” he put his arm on her
shoulder. Jess grabbed him by the wrist and locked his arm out painfully, “ easy Jay it's me relax” he groaned
“sorry”
“nightmares huh?” he asked while tenderly rubbing his injured wrist
“Yep” she stated as she stepped out the car.
“still running in the rain trying to escape the shadow men?” Aaron asked as he followed her out into the vacant building. Jess turned quickly
aimed a kick at the inside of his left leg Aaron countered and threw a punch that Jess blocked before striking him in the jaw with an elbow. He was
dazed, she spun round to free herself from his grasp drew her weapon and pressed it to his temple.”What kind of #ed up psi-op is this? and How the
hell do you know what I dream about? Answer quickly or I swear I will redecorate the walls with your brains” she asked calmly.
“ Okay easy Jay this isn't a psi-op so please put the gun away and I will tell you how I know about your nightmares.” she pushed the Glock harder
into his temple
“i think it's safer if i keep it where it is now talk!”
“jay put the gun away or i am going to make you pull that trigger, you know me so you know I won't tell you anything while you are threatening
me.” he shouted angrily, she took a step back and lowered her weapon. “You told me once, about the nightmares, I was in my final few weeks of
training and had been assigned to guard duty in the recruit quarters. I was doing a bunk check at about 3am, I walked into your room and you were
screaming in your sleep. I tried to wake you and you jumped to your feet like an eight year old ninja looking around for danger. You were terrified so
I tried to comfort you by reciting a poem to you. Do you remember?” she stared deep into his eyes as she tried to remember.
“Will you walk into my parlour? Said the spider to the fly.” reciting the first line of the poem a look of astonishment appeared on her face “
how did I forget I told you about the nightmares? you told me everything would be fine and that no matter how scary they are the nightmares couldn't
hurt me.” Jess walked back towards the car placed the gun on the bonnet and fell to her knees weeping. Aaron walked slowly over and sat with his
back to the car. “ what else did I tell you that night Jay?”
“You said that it's okay to be afraid because fear makes you strong if you know how to use it”
“exactly and now we both need to be very afraid because the admiral won't stop hunting us so are we going to use our fear and stay alive or will we
sit here until the kill squad brakes the door down?” he said with a childish grin. “You're an ass! But I am sorry I put a gun to your head”
“To be fair I think I would have done the same in your shoes, I do have a reputation for running psi-ops and messing around in peoples heads But
that is over now. If we are going to survive this we need to trust each other can you do that?”
“I have always trusted you Aaron that was just a momentary lapse in a stressful situation” Aaron grabbed the pack from the car and removed four
passports, four burn phones and a map of Odessa. He handed two of the passports to Jess and put the other two back in the pack. Jess picked one of the
burn phones and Aaron replaced the others, Jess retrieved the Tactical package from the Back seat it contained Two 9mm pistols with silencer and five
hundred rounds of ammunition as well as a full Trauma kit and an HK mp5 with five hundred rounds. “ Nice hardware are you planning on storming the
beaches at Normandy?” Jess quipped
“Can't be too careful, I think the mp5 is a bit much for this mission we have to be stealth so we will stash that here and come back later. Do you
think you can find us a car?”
“You know damn well there isn't a car in the world I can't hot-wire, what will it be Aston martin, Bentley? This is Odessa after all, the home of
arms dealers and smugglers” her cheeky grin gave away how excited she was
“nothing so flashy we don't want to draw attention, get something fast but discreet”
she waved off his statement as she walked away. “sure thing boss”

The rain was pounding against the windshield of the stolen bmw as they sat parked in the alley overlooking the apartment building “ lets go over
the plan again we can't afford anymore mistakes” Jess was in the back seat checking and re-checking her weapon. “ I enter the building and make my
way up to targets apartment while you ascend the fire escape. I keep the target occupied at the main entrance so you can sneak in the window and
sedate him, you carry him down the fire escape as I bring the car around. Satisfied?”
“Indeed. Now go and get in position we move in five minutes” Jess stepped out into the rain concealing her 9mm at her back she made her way toward
the building, as she crossed the street she noticed her target exiting the apartment block and making his way down the street.
Aaron started the engine as he grabbed his phone to call Jess. “ Looks like we are going to plan b, stay with him and wait
for my signal”
“Got it”
She made her way down the street staying at least twenty feet from her target at all times, he turned left down a side street when she noticed the
tail. She couldn't be sure if they were here for her and Aaron or the target but something was definitely out of place. A black van that was parked a
short distance ahead began to move slowly towards her, making her way into the alley she drew her weapon and ducked behind a large glass recycling
bin.
Aaron had seen the suspicious van just as Jess made her way into the alley, he drove casually past and made a left to cut-off the
target at the other side. Jess was crouched down behind the bin waiting for the sound of the footsteps that she knew were following her, the pursuer
rounded the corner as Jess broke cover and fired hitting him between the eyes. Her silencer preventing mass panic, she made her way along the street
her target was about to exit onto the main street when Aaron turned the corner and knocked him unconscious. He carried him to the car and lay him on
the back seat as the black van pulled alongside, Aaron went for his weapon but before he could do anything Jess rounded the corner and fired two shots
causing the driver to take off at speed. “We have to move! By now the admiral knows we are here, you drive I want to make sure our friend here
doesn't freak out and try and jump from a moving car he is the only leverage we have.”

Damon woke up in the backseat of a bmw with a pounding headache to find himself in the company of two people he didn't recognise neither of them
noticed him open his eyes so he decided to play it safe and let them think he was still out-cold. The girl that was driving was speaking with the guy
that knocked him out. “ They were definitely after him, they had a chance to take me before I went in that alley and they never instead they decided
to make a move on you just as you were putting our friend in the back”
“ I agree but we can't take any chances we have to get out of Odessa tonight or all three of us are dead, the admiral would rather kill him than
have him helping us that puts him at the top of the hit-list” he didn't seem afraid as he spoke of hit-lists and admirals, Damon cleared his throat
bringing his consciousness to their attention. “ good morning sleepy head the pretty blonde said with a smile in the rear-view mirror, you are awake
just in time.” The car pulled into an old warehouse that was abandoned except for a red alpha romeo. “ so what are you guys CIA, FBI?” Damon
asked knowing that they were neither. “ Afraid not, those guys might actually be able to protect you the best we can offer is a life on the run. I'm
Jess this is Aaron and together we just saved your ass” she said in an overly dramatic voice-over tone. “ yeah whatever can someone please explain
to me what the hell is going on? Why am I here? And who the # is the admiral?”
“It seems Damon here was awake and listening to our conversation in the car, that's good we are going to need your wits if we are to have a hope of
getting out of this.”
“shut up Aaron and tell him the situation so we can get the hell out of here.”
“okay. You are Damon Taylor Alias Gizmo from Baltimore-Maryland your entire family was killed after you hacked the CIA, I hear you were looking for
info on the death of your big brother Marcus, anyway the idiots at the CIA raided your home not realising your father was one of the largest
producers of crystal meth in the city they threw a percussion grenade causing the ether in your fathers garage to ignite and level the house killing
everyone, you have been on the run since that day you were thirteen and through some miracle you managed to stay one step ahead for seven years.”
“ I know my life story you arrogant jackass so get to the point why am I here?” Damon interrupted his temper boiling to the surface.
“You are here because you are probably the most gifted hacker in the world and because of that a man who runs a secret organization specializing in
assassinations and abductions wants you to be his new tech genie, he will use your skills and have you teach the recruits all your little tricks and
when he is done with you he will cut your throat without a second thought, one more thing if you ever speak to me like that again I will take your
tongue and feed it to my fish.”Aaron stormed off feigning anger.
“don't worry about him he doesn't have any fish and he isn't really angry, he likes mind games and wants to see how you react so don't show him any
fear.” Jess spoke softly trying to be reassuring
“So what he said was true then? If the admiral gets me he will force me to work for him then kill me?”
“every word was true if you think you will be safer on your own then we wont stop you but you should know this Aaron didn't have to be here, he was
told to kill me but instead saved my life and then devised a plan to keep us both alive that plan required us to save your life. He may be an annoying
jackass but he is the guy you want on your side when your backs against the wall, we leave in ten minutes so I suggest you make a
decision.”

Break up your sentences, and make paragraphs. Make lots of them, you are not limited on space when you write.

Conversations go on separate lines, when two people are talking.

Keep the same tense within the same sentence, and better, the whole story. Watch for your usage of "ing" and "ed". For example, walking is
present tense, walked is past tense. That is the number one mistake even good writers make.

Watch your punctuation. End every sentence in a period.

Now, on with the edit:

Aaron was running faster than he had ever ran before through the dusty alleyways of Algiers, The dry heat of the spring sun was almost too much to
bear but his pace never altered. He felt the breeze of a bullet miss his head by inches as he took the sharp turn into the next alley, launched
himself onto the low baring roof of the adjacent building and continued to flee. He turned around and saw that his pursuers had not dropped their pace
so instinctively he broke right and leapt across the gap and landed with a crunch on a small balcony where an old couple were enjoying a game of
chess. The old women released a terrified yelp as Aaron landed and her husband moved with a speed that to Aaron seemed almost unnatural in a man his
age, Aaron ducked through the doorway into the couples apartment as his pursuers fired a hail of bullets at his position cutting the old man down as
he moved to cover his wife.

Aaron ran faster than he had ever ran before through the dusty alleyways of Algiers, and the dry heat of the spring sun was almost too much to bear,
but his pace never altered.

He suddenly felt the breeze of a bullet miss his head by inches, so he took a sharp turn into the next alley and launched himself onto the low roof of
the adjacent building as he continued to flee. He turned around and saw that his pursuers had not dropped their pace, so instinctively he broke right
and leaped across the gap, and landed with a crunch on a small balcony where an old couple were enjoying a game of chess.

The old woman released a terrified yelp as Aaron landed, and her husband moved with a speed that to Aaron seemed almost unnatural for a man his age.
Aaron ducked through the doorway into the couple's apartment as his pursuers fired a hail of bullets at his position, cutting the old man down as he
moved to protect his wife.

Notes: Not a poorly written paragraph, but it needed broken up and the punctuation fixed. Use commas to pause the action a bit. Keep an eye on
spelling and verb tenses.

He awoke from the nightmare with a start and found that his sheets were soaked with sweat it had been a long time since he had a nightmare, it
brought back painful memories that he would rather forget. His quarters were cold and devoid of any sentiment it was not permitted for agents to have
personal items on base but Aaron had stashed a backpack with passports, cash and several burn phones in one of the ceiling panels after his first
mission, It was his backup plan in the unlikely event that he had to get out, all he had to do was retrieve the pack and disappear. He thought often
of taking off and finding a nice beach on a tropical island where he wouldn't have to worry about the admiral or missions or any of the other crap he
hated about this hellhole. Sometimes he wondered why his mother sent him here, was he so repellent that his own mother couldn't stand to be around
him? Of course he knew that wasn't the case, she sent him here to protect him after his father betrayed his country and his family by working for
Syrian intelligence. Ten years had passed and he still remembered the day his mother told him the truth, he was nine years old..

He awoke from the nightmare with a start and found that his sheets were soaked with sweat. It had been a long time since he had a nightmare, and it
brought back painful memories that he would rather have forgotten. His quarters were cold, devoid of any sentiment, as it was not permitted for agents
to have personal items on base.

Aaron had stashed a backpack with passports, cash, and several burn phones in one of the ceiling panels after his first mission. It was his backup
plan in the unlikely event that he had to get out, and all he had to do was retrieve the pack and disappear.

He often thought of taking off and finding a nice beach on a tropical island where he wouldn't have to worry about the Admiral or missions or any of
the other crap that he hated about this hellhole. Sometimes he wondered why his mother sent him here.

Was it because he was so repellent that his own mother couldn't stand to be around him?

Of course, he knew the truth: She had sent him here to protect him after his father betrayed his country and his family by working for Syrian
intelligence. Ten long years had passed, and he still remembered the day his mother told him the truth. He was nine years old at the time.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.